Wednesday, June 2, 2010

While writing my research paper I must admit that I have learned a lot of great new things concerning any kinds of research.
First of all, I found out that it is not that hard as I thought at the very beginning when we were assigned to write a research paper.
Secondly, I realized that the library in our collage has many great books and other articles about various topics which students easily can find and use when writing any kind of essay. Moreover, I was not aware that I am able to get online access to library sources which provide for example wide range of articles about different subjects.
What is more, while writing my research paper I have also learned how to cite. I believe this is very good skill and will be very helpful in my future researches especially when major, Paralegal Studies, requires many of researches when doing any kind of assignment.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Who is to blame for the death of a child? Is it the vegan lifestyle or vegan parents who neglected to provide their growing baby with proper nutrition

Veganism. What is a vegan? What does it mean and in what way does this lifestyle contribute to human health? I believe that many people were not aware of a vegan lifestyle until they heard about the vegan couple who were sentenced to life in prison over the death of their baby who died six weeks after birth. And here comes the question: What killed this child? Was it the vegan diet which caused starvation to death or were the parents just negligent people who did not provide proper nutrition to their baby? However, a vegan diet if not well-planned may be dangerous for weaned babies and toddlers the reason this child is not alive is mainly because of the parents lack of responsibility to supply the child with an adequate diet. What is more, appropriately planned vegan diet and vegan lifestyle can be extremely advantageous to human health and children raised on vegan diet are able to obtain enough supplements to grow normally.
First of all, in order to prove that vegan diet is really healthful and beneficial at every stage of life all the aspects of this diet should be explained. Veganism is the strictest type of vegetarian diet that excludes animal products such as: meat, fish, dairy and gelatin. In addition to that, vegans also avoid products that are derived from animals, for instance leather, wool, silk, cosmetics or other chemicals products tested on animals. A vegan diet includes vegetables, fruits, all grains, nuts, beans and plenty of food that is combined from these products. They are rich source of vitamins, minerals and enzymes which are extremely essential to health. Although vegans do not consume meet which supplies human body in essential amino acids and proteins, they can easily be replaced by combining and consuming plant foods that together provide all these indispensable supplements. Some of the reasons why people decide to become vegan is the thought of being healthy, protecting animal rights and environment issue. Besides, things such us food poisoning and E-coli can be avoided. Properly planned vegan diet provides people with all nutrients that the human body needs in order to properly function. Research has shown that vegetarian diets are generally healthier that those of nonvegetarians. According to the book “Nutrition Now” by Judith E. Brown “compared to the usual American diet and lifestyle, veganism is associated with a lower risk of developing of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, chronic bronchitis, gallstones and kidney stones, and colon cancer. For children and adults at risk of early heart disease, the low-fat and high-fiber vegetable and fruit content of vegetarian diets may help reduce blood cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease” (Brown 16-5). As one can conclude, an appropriate-planned vegan diet is beneficial to human health, both for adults and child. Any kind of vegetarian diet has plenty of advantages and gives people opportunities to lead healthy lifestyle and avoid many chronic diseases. There are many vegans in this world, healthy and alive therefore, it’s not solely veganism that killed the child.
Secondly, to prove that negligent parents should be blamed for the baby’s death, the benefits of vegan diet during pregnancy and childhood should be broadly explained. The first opportunity to build a healthy foundation for a child's growth and development come before he or she is born. The future well-being of a baby will be affected by choices a mother makes throughout her pregnancy. Women can help assure that their baby will develop normally if they eat an adequate, nutritious diet from the moment of conception until the day the baby is born. Reed Mangels, a nutrition professional, who gave his talk during the large session called Plant-based Diets: Pregnancy Through Childhood emphasizes that “pregnancy, lactation, infancy, and early childhood are periods of nutritional vulnerability for both vegetarians and nonvegetarians (…) vegetarian diets are appropriate for women throughout pregnancy and lactation and for their infants” (Mangles 1). According to the studies presented in an article by Margaret Mallon, “infants and children raised on a varied vegan diet obtain adequate protein and energy, are healthy and grow normally. Reports of vegan infants suffering protein and energy deficiencies are extremely rare” (Mallon 8). George Rodger of the Vegan Society says that there are large numbers of people around the world who have been brought up as a vegan from birth. He also states that “vegan children tend to be healthier, as do adults on a vegan diet. A vegan diet is good for you only when you make healthy eating choices” (Mallon 8). Furthermore, he claims that it is essential to continue breastfeeding for a year because breast milk is rich source of nutrients essential to infant growth and development. What is more, there are many more studies are researchers not only in the United States which demonstrate that parents can feed their kids with a vegan diet without any side affects to children’ health. “A British study in the late 1980’s, for example, found that vegan kids raised by well-informed parents were all within the normal rage of height, weight and head circumference” (Villamagna 65). Taking all these aspects into consideration, without any doubts it can be concluded that the vegan parents had fed the baby the right way and often enough, all necessary vitamins and minerals would be delivered to the baby’s organism and the outcome wouldn’t be death!
As studies show, a vegan diet is appropriate for at all stages of the life cycle, however, some nutritionists say that vegetarian diets do not provide proper nutrition for children and may lead to serious health problems or cause a death. Nina Planck’s article published in the New York Times says that protein deficiency is one danger of a vegan diet for babies. Furthermore, Planck states that weaned babies and toddlers need plenty of protein and calcium which cannot be obtained from a plant diet. A former vegan herself, Planck says she concluded that “a vegan pregnancy was irresponsible. You cannot create and nourish robust baby merely on foods from plants” (Planck 1). However, Planck is identified as a food writer and expert on farmers market, her article condemning vegan diet contains serious errors concerning the adequacy of plant food. Amy Joy Lanou who is a senior nutrition scientist in Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is definitely and absolutely opposed to Nina Planck’s opinion. She says that the main reason why the baby died was not providing breast milk, soy-based baby formula or any other kind of nutrition. Besides, she strongly emphasizes that “well-planned vegan diets are healthful for pregnant mothers and their infants, as well as for older children, according to a large body of scientific research” (Lanou 1). According to her opinion, it undoubtedly can be said that there is a lot of nutrients with animal origin that easily can be replaced by vegetarian ones without causing a harm to people’s health.
As far as all these facts are concerned, one can easily conclude that a vegan diet and vegan lifestyle has plenty of advantages that extremely contribute to our health, environment and other aspects of life. The miserable story of six-weeks old boy, presents the picture of the irresponsible vegan couple who deliberately neglected and starved their baby to death. Needless to say, no matter what type of lifestyle we lead or we would like to lead, we always ought to choose a well-planned diet that will be beneficial at all stages of life.


WORKS CITED
Brown, Judith E. Nutrition Now. 4th Edition. 1. Chicago: Wadsworth Inc., 2005. 16-5. Print.

Joy Lanou, Amy. "The Vegans and Their Children ." the New York Times 23 May 207: 1. Web. 18 Apr 2010. .

Mallon, Margaret. "The Vogue is Vegan." the Scotsman 1 Nov 2000: 8. Web. 18 Apr 2010. .

Mangles, Reed, and . "Vegetarian Diets During Pregnancy, Lactation, and Infancy." Boston, MA 27 Oct 1997: 2. Web. 18 Apr 2010. .

Planck, Nina, and . "Death by Veganism." the New York Times 21 May 2007: 1. Web. 18 Apr 2010. .

Villamagna, Andrew, and Diana Villamagna. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids. 1st. 1. New York, NY: Alpha Books, 2010. 65. Print.

Counter Argument

As studies show, a vegan diet is appropriate for at all stages of the life cycle, however, some nutritionists say that vegetarian diets do not provide proper nutrition for children and may lead to serious health problems or cause a death. Nina Planck’s article published in the New York Times says that protein deficiency is one danger of a vegan diet for babies. Furthermore, Planck states that weaned babies and toddlers need plenty of protein and calcium which cannot be obtained from a plant diet. A former vegan herself, Planck says she concluded that “a vegan pregnancy was irresponsible. You cannot create and nourish robust baby merely on foods from plants” (Planck 1). However, Planck is identified as a food writer and expert on farmers market, her article condemning vegan diet contains serious errors concerning the adequacy of plant food. Amy Joy Lanou who is a senior nutrition scientist in Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is definitely and absolutely opposed to Nina Planck’s opinion. She says that the main reason why the baby died was not providing breast milk, soy-based baby formula or any other kind of nutrition. Besides, she strongly emphasizes that “well-planned vegan diets are healthful for pregnant mothers and their infants, as well as for older children, according to a large body of scientific research” (Lanou 1). According to her opinion, it undoubtedly can be said that there is a lot of nutrients with animal origin that easily can be replaced by vegetarian ones without causing a harm to people’s health.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

SUPER SIZE ME

The fatter people are getting, the bigger fast-food restaurants are, especially McDonald's. McDonald's is now the biggest fast-food corporation in America. McDonald's restaurants exist almost everywhere in the United States. After watching the documentary film Super Size Me, I was in a deep shock how drastically our health can change for worst when eating fast food. This movie made me think twice about eating fast food.
Morgan Spurlock decided to make a documentary on just how unhealthy fast food is.
In the documentary Spurlock goes to show how people are becoming obese by eating too much fast food. In the United States obesity is second to smoking when it comes to most preventable cause of death. Spurlock ate McDonald’s for thirty days, three times a day. He had to follow rules like: he could only supersize if he was asked, he could only eat three meals a day, and he only ate McDonald’s food and had to eat everything on the menu at least once.
Morgan’s health was monitored by three different doctors. They ran blood work and monitored him closely. His health changed greatly by the end of the thirty days. He gained 24.5 pounds. He was depressed and had a constant sick feeling including heart pains and difficult breathing. Spurlock's documentary shows that people who eat fast food are much more likely to develop diabetes than those who don't.
McDonald’s spends millions of dollars to promote food that helps in the obesity rate. They would do better to spend the same amount of money to promote the healthier foods on their menu. McDonald’s also appeals to children. Children love going to McDonalds for the happy meals and toys they get with the order. Childhood obesity has grown due to fast food. Fast food is dangerous. It leads to obesity. McDonald’s offers healthier food but they do not promote it enough! The normal person doesn’t go into McDonald’s to order salads and apples. Fast food is going to be around but Americans need to be educated to the health dangers they are facing.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Revision Letter

Dear Dr McCormick,


After reviewing my paper and all your comments, I realize that I must correct certain parts of my essay.
First of all, I am going to state my thesis more clearly by providing a detailed explanation on my opinion of who is to blame to the child’s death. To make my thesis more clear, I would like to say that the reason this child is not alive, is mainly because of the parents lack of responsibility to supply the child with not adequate diet.
Secondly, after reviewing my paragraphs I will put more attention on connecting paragraphs with the thesis. Each paragraph will provide with t information, examples and opinions which evidently prove my thesis. Moreover, the end of each paragraph will contain a very short summary and conclusion about the main idea discussed in a paragraph. Off course, all conclusion will be linked with the thesis. To make my essay more interesting, I am also going to present information about the opposite view. I will present an article which says that a vegan diet is equally dangerous for weaned babies and toddlers, who need plenty of protein and calcium and too often vegans turn to soy.
In order to provide more details and examples, I am going to do more research about vegan diet which. help me to prove that vegan diet if well-planned is beneficial at all stages of life. I think that it will provide enough information about the case and help readers to understand what I am discussing.
I believe that all these correction and new ideas that I would like to imply into my essay will clearly demonstrate my thoughts and opinion about this particular case and confirm the thesis.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Vegans/Veganism

My research paper is going to be about Vegans:

-what is a vegan/veganism
-history of veganism
-what do vegans eat
-vegan organisations PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9OgM5N3uA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism
http://www.peta.org/
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1854996,00.html

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The best choices to eat healthfully on a limited budget

Nowadays, when the world struggles with a great deal of serious problems such as wars, pollution, global warming or various kind of diseases, many of us are looking for better ways to live. A great deal of people try to come up with a solution to make it happen by changing their lifestyle. For many, this is only an unrealistic idea because of the fact that healthy food especially organic or natural foods are very expensive and many of us cannot afford them. With everything that is going on currently such us high un-employment, inflation and other unstable economical situation, it has become difficult for regular citizens to afford the cost. But there are several ways to we make it possible. One of the choices to eat healthfully on a limited budget is an increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and vegetable contribute to maintain a good health. They are rich source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein or enzymes which are extremely essential to our life. For instance, they regulate metabolism, lower blood pressure, boost immune system and energy level or promote oral health. People, whose diet is enriched with great amount of fruits and veggies, are likely to have reduced risk of certain chronic diseases from stroke to cancer. In addition, vegetables are very low in calories which promote weight control. There are certain types of vegetable that we can eat and not gain weight.
Secondly, vegetables and fruits are available everywhere. Each supermarket or grocery store offers a variety of produce from all over the world. The best choice is to pick out only organic fruits and vegetables for the reason that they are produce without using pesticides and other dangerous, chemical substances. However, organic food is more expensive due to the nature of it processing, it will not cost you more than regular food or addictive fast food on which people tend to spend a lot of money. You can also visit a local farmer market where you can buy high quality vegetables and fruits for cheaper price. One of the advantages of buying from those market is that, produce are grown locally which means that farmer do not have to use chemicals to make them stay fresh for a long period of time.
Furthermore, fruits and vegetables are best tasting food. You can make plenty of healthy and delicious dishes. One of the easiest, quickest and cheapest dish that you can make by yourself is a simple vegetable soup. These home made soups and foods are more healthy because you can cook them in accordance with your taste and health. In addition to vegetables, fruits juices are also great source of enrich minerals and vitamins. You can also make fruit cocktails which is combinations of many different fruits and can be obtained at affordable price.
At the end, it is safe to say that, to lead a healthy lifestyle, one does not need to spend tremendous amount of money or does not require to change eating habits drastically. Increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, in addition to the regular food on a daily basis, will assure a good health and tasty dishes everyday.